It's all about the yellow socks

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015

Kurt Searvogel v Steve Abraham – February

One Year Time Trial, the HAM’R what ever you call it the challenge for the highest mileage in a year is boiling hot right now. Both riders are entering the frightening phase where anything below 200 miles a day is just not good enough to Break the Tommy Godwin 75,065 record.

Jo’s superb Graphic visualization

As Jo from GIcentre shows us in this graph Kurt is hovering just below the flat average 205 mile rate, while Steve’s red line is just above his “optimistic” planned schedule. Both riders are miles ahead of Tommy Godwins record pace which was seriously hampered by a bad winter.

On the 10th Mar Steve has just blasted through 13,000 miles as he completes a huge 2 days out to York and back. Day 59 for Kurt means he has reached the theoretical 2 month point. Compared to Steve’s similar Feb 28 point he is now 913 miles ahead. The graph below (from my spread sheet log) shows the still growing lead despite 243 miles from Steve in the last two days. The circles show that Kurt could have four days off and still be ahead, but Steve has miles in the bank. Then again you realise how long they have to go because that’s only 3 miles a day difference for the rest of the year.
This great UMCA graph reminds us just how Tommy ramped up some crazy mid year mileage, will anyone match his 361 mile in 1 day maximum.

Kurts lead as it continues to grow – and 4 days next points

As many forum posters are keen to point out, both riders are approaching this differently. Kurt (Tarzan) has been touring coast to coast across Florida and it’s been fun watching his daily videos and comments, he comes across as a fun and likeable guy. Helper Alicia gives us an insight in this press article.
Steve has ridden darker, windier, hillier miles which means he has very little personal time to give an insight into how things are going. There have been a few tweets and photos grabbed by followers, but mainly it’s a long lonely furrow punctuated with huge meals at cafes and hosts houses. All the updates have been from the support team. Friend Noel caught up with Teethgrinder the man in red recently for a quick riding video on the old A1. He also took part in a 200Km Audax in Essex, where several riders got to spend time riding and eating with Steve.

A typical 200 mile day for Steve

Steve did have an article in the National press, the Guardian did a piece, but overall its just a modest guy quietly grinding out the miles in less than favourable conditions. Unfortunately this did bring the cycling haters to the surface in the comments section. During the month more details emerged of the Raleigh bikes in use from Road CC. The first bike which he was on when he stayed at Burlycross towers, “Red” has been serviced and apart from failed wheel bearings and one tyre cut which sealed without a tube, the tubeless tyres have been trouble free.

During the month Kurt competed at the Sebring race weekend doing the 12 hour TT. He had a rest day of only 120 miles on arrival at Sebring, showing he still aims to be competitive in events despite the workload. 263 miles on race day, followed by another 200 mile monster the day after shows Tarzans pedigree. Another couple of crashes, one when hitting the curb, another where he is taken out by a car turning into a car park have fortunately only resulted in a grazed arm.

One video caught Tarzan at a very low point where he questions why he is doing this rather than playing in the snow with his kids. A start reminder that this year long battle is more than just the riding and avoiding injury, the mental toughness required cannot be overstated as both riders now have to increase the ride hours.

The official daily rides page shows 26th Jan for Kurt has been corrected to 175.9 miles and not the original Strava 181.9 miles. The contested day of 28th Feb still shows the lower Strava mileage although Kurt claims over 200 was completed.

So as Kurt heads away from the Florida heat into Mississippi and home towards Arkansas (follow him now on Google) can we expect more miles due to local knowledge. Steve gains more daylight in the UK and continues his relentless march as his heatmap expands in all directions. It’s going to be another extremely interesting month so like me I hope you keep watching and supporting these legends.